Green Lantern -- the Old Krazy Kat

The LTR has organized one of his occasional jaunts to the DC gay bar the Green Lantern (called the Green Latrine by locals) for shirtless night. On shirtless night between 10-11 pm all shirtless men drink free. As you can imagine this draws quite a crowd. Two years ago I wouldn't be caught dead in public sans shirt but recently I've been feeling better about myself so I've gone with the LTR and am going tonight (though I still have qualms about this whole shirtless thing).

Anyway, the point of this wasn't to go on about my self-conscious body image, but to bring to light this historical fact.

The Green Lantern is in a building that was once used as a carriage house, a place where they kept horse-drawn carriages and sometimes the horses too. Most carriage houses in DC -- as I imagine is true in most cities -- were converted into livable dwellings for people when people no longer needed carriages and cities grew.

The carriage house that is now the Green Lantern was converted into a watering hole at least as early as 1920. It was called the Krazy Kat. A gay diarist at the time (Jeb Alexander) makes this entry about it on July 23, 1920:

Tonight he tried to get me to persuade me to go with him to the Krazy Kat, a 'Bohemian" joint in an old stable up near Thomas Circle. He told me about the conversation in there, of artists, musicians, atheists, professors.

In short -- queers! I just think it's cool to be going to a gay bar in 2006 that was a gathering place for gays nearly 100 years ago. The Krazy Kat figures several times in Jeb's diary. I know he'd get a kick out of what it has become.